Luigi Cherubini Biography
Italian-born French Composer and Teacher, Master of Religious Music
Jan 20, 2008
A master of sacred music, Luigi Cherubini's importance as a composer lies in bringing Italian opera in French musical life. He was influential in development of French opera. He is known for opera Médée (Medea) and Les Deux Journée (The Two Days.)
He transformed opera comique as a vehicle for stronger dramatic portrayal through the transitional period from Classicism to Romanticism. He was a contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was older by only 4 years .
Early Training and Education
Italian-born French composer and teacher of religious music, Luigi Cherubini, (1760-1842), was born in Florence, Italy, on September 14, 1760. A son of a theater musician, he had early exposure to music. Later in his teens, he wrote many works mainly for the church, including three masses.
Cherubini gained support of the Grand Duke of Florence (later Emperor Leopold II) who was so impressed that he sent Cherubini to study in Venice. At 18, with many works to his credit, he studied in Bologna and Milan.
Before trying his luck in Paris, he produced some operas in Italy, and London, staying there for 2 years, holding the post of Composer to King George III. He then settled in Paris, where he remained for the rest of his life; he died, aged 82.
Musical Career
He became Italian opera director for 2 years before he was appointed inspector of the Paris Conservatoire in 1795, his status further enhanced by the successes of operas Medee (Medea) and Les deux journees (The Two Days).
Commissions from European houses took him abroad regularly. In 1805, he went to Vienna, where he met Haydn and Beethoven.
Eventually he was appointed composition professor at the Paris Conservatoire (1816) where he had immense influence as a teacher; and became its director from 1821 until 1842. Among his prominent students was Daniel Auber and Jacques Halevy, Bizet's teacher.
He worked as superintendent de la musique du roi under the restored monarchy, where he turned increasingly to church music, (his best known is C minor Requiem especially admired by Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Berlioz), writing 7 masses, 2 requiems and many shorter pieces.
The Composer and Writer
It was his French opera Lodoiska that gained a successful premiere. His other works include operas Anacreon, opera-ballet, and Faniska; secular and sacred vocal music, orchestral and chamber music.
Cherubini also completed a textbook on counterpoint and fugue.
Honors and Significant Achievement
The National honours (a commission from the London Philharmonic Society, 1815), directorship of the Conservatoire (1822), and completion of his textbook Cours de contrepoint et de fugue (1835), crowned Luigi Cherubini's career.
Cherubini's Operas
- Demophon, 1778
- Ifigenia in Aulide, 1788
- Lodoiska, 1791
- Médée, 1797
- Les Deux Journées (The Two Days), 1800
- Anacreon, 1803
- Faniska, 1806
- Ali Baba, 1833
edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press Ltd (1994)
Opera, Editor-in-Chief, Andras Batta, English Edition (2000)
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music,
The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham, OUP (2002)
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